9-year-old suspended after he says he stood up to a bully

9-year-old suspended after he says he stood up to a bully

Colorado Springs, CO (KDVR) — Most Wednesday afternoons Nathan Pemberton would be sitting in his third grade classroom. But that didn’t happen.

“Got suspended,” he says.

The 9-year-old was kicked out of school Tuesday after he says he stood up to a bully who was beating him up.

“One kid kicked me in the back, then punched me in the face. Then I punched him in the faced, and then I got in trouble,” he says.

A picture shows the red marks on his face. His parents says about once a week, he’s been coming home from West Elementary School in Colorado Springs saying he’s been bullied.

They’re glad he finally decided enough is enough.

“Finally, yeah, we told him, if you have to, if there’s nobody else around, you do what you have to do,” his mother, Deborah Pemberton, says.

A school spokesperson told FOX31 Denver in a statement the district has a “no tolerance student discipline policy. If a student is involved in a physical altercation on school property, they are automatically suspended.”

It goes on to say, “District 11 schools employ many anti-bullying teaching techniques … and none of these methods include violence or retaliation.”

“Well the school had told us and told him as well, just walk away. Walk away, find a teacher,” says Deborah Pemberton. “Well, when those things happened, and he did find a teacher, there was hardly any repercussions.”

Since Tuesday’s fight, the family has been getting calls from reporters as far away as New York.

There’s something about Nathan’s story — a school kid fighting back against a bully, that’s touched a nerve.